U.S. law says ‘Go back to where you came from’ counts as discrimination

WASHINGTON, DC –According to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the federal agency charged with enforcing laws prohibiting workplace discrimination, cites “go back to where you came from” as a remark that may constitute unlawful harassment based on national origin.

President Donald Trump tweeted Sunday that Democratic Reps. Ayanna Pressley (Mass.), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.), Ilhan Omar (Minn.) and Rashida Tlaib (Mich.) should “go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came” after the lawmakers, all four American citizens, criticized him. Three of the four women were born in the U.S., and one came from Somalia as a child.

The tweet ignited a firestorm in Washington and caused the House to quickly show support for the women by passing a resolution Tuesday condemning the tweets.

The EEOC specifically cites the phrase “Go back to where you came from” as the type of language that could violate anti-discrimination employment laws in certain circumstances. The phrase is nearly identical to what Trump wrote in his tweets about the congresswomen: “Why don’t they go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came.”

On Monday, a day after Trump made his tweets, the EEOC tweeted about how an employee can submit a charge of discrimination, prompting some Twitter users to link the President’s tweets to the regulations.

“Ethnic slurs and other verbal or physical conduct because of nationality are illegal if they are severe or pervasive and create an intimidating, hostile or offensive working environment, interfere with work performance, or negatively affect job opportunities,” the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission states in a passage on its website.

“Examples of potentially unlawful conduct include insults, taunting, or ethnic epithets, such as making fun of a person’s foreign accent or comments like, ‘Go back to where you came from,’ whether made by supervisors or by co-workers,” the passage reads.

Sen. Tim Kaine, a Virginia Democrat, wrote in a tweet that the agency “cites ‘go back to where you came from’ as a classic form of discrimination that violates civil rights,” CNN reported.

“The President’s bigoted words are so contrary to who we are as a country that we literally have laws against them,” Kaine wrote in the tweet.

Sunny Hostin, a co-host on ABC’s “The View,” wrote in a tweet on Tuesday that “the ‘Go back where you came from’ trope is ‘potentially unlawful conduct’ if uttered by supervisors or co-workers. Just in case people are wondering if it’s ‘racist’,” CNN reported.

The EEOC says on its website that if an individual believes they have been discriminated against at work based on their identity — including their national origin — they can file a “charge of discrimination” with the agency, which “is a signed statement asserting that an employer, union or labor organization engaged in employment discrimination” and requests the agency “to take remedial action.”

source: usa.inquirer.net

Trump sends racist tweet against Dem lawmakers

WASHINGTON— Starkly injecting race into his criticism of liberal Democrats, President Donald Trump said four congresswomen of color should go back to the “broken and crime infested” countries they came from, ignoring the fact that all of the women are American citizens and three were born in the U.S. His attack drew a searing condemnation from Democrats who labeled the remarks racist and breathtakingly divisive.

Following a familiar script, Republicans remained largely silent after Trump’s Sunday morning broadsides against the four women. But the president’s nativist tweets caused Democrats to set aside their internal rifts to rise up in a united chorus against the president.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Trump wants to “make America white again.” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, after jousting for days with Pelosi, said Trump “can’t conceive of an America that includes us.”

Trump, who has a long history of making racist remarks, was almost certainly referring to Ocasio-Cortez and her House allies in what’s become known as “the squad.” The others are Reps. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan. Only Omar, from Somalia, is foreign-born.

Ocasio-Cortez swiftly denounced his remarks . “Mr. President, the country I ‘come from,’ & the country we all swear to, is the United States,” she tweeted, adding that “You rely on a frightened America for your plunder.” Omar also addressed herself directly to Trump in a tweet, writing: “You are stoking white nationalism (because) you are angry that people like us are serving in Congress and fighting against your hate-filled agenda.”

Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York, chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, summed up the Democratic response: “Racial arsonist strikes again. Shut. Your. Reckless. Mouth.”


With his tweet, Trump inserted himself further into a rift between Pelosi and Ocasio-Cortez, just two days after he offered an unsolicited defense of the Democratic speaker. Pelosi has been seeking to minimize Ocasio-Cortez’s influence in the House Democratic caucus in recent days, prompting Ocasio-Cortez to accuse Pelosi of trying to marginalize women of color.

“She is not a racist,” Trump said of Pelosi on Friday.

On Sunday, Trump’s tone took a turn.

“So interesting to see ‘Progressive’ Democrat Congresswomen, who originally came from countries whose governments are a complete and total catastrophe, the worst, most corrupt and inept anywhere in the world (if they even have a functioning government at all), now loudly and viciously telling the people of the United States, the greatest and most powerful Nation on earth, how our government is to be run,” he tweeted.

“Why don’t they go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came. Then come back and show us how it is done.”

He added: “These places need your help badly, you can’t leave fast enough. I’m sure that Nancy Pelosi would be very happy to quickly work out free travel arrangements!”

The attacks may have been meant to widen the divides within the Democrat caucus, which has been riven by internal debate over how far left to go in countering Trump and over whether to proceed with impeachment proceedings against the president. Instead, the president’s tweets, which evoked the trope of telling black people to go back to Africa, brought Democrats together.

“Let’s be clear about what this vile comment is: A racist and xenophobic attack on Democratic congresswomen,” tweeted Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Democratic presidential candidate.

Another 2020 contender, former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke, tweeted at the president: “This is racist. These congresswomen are every bit as American as you — and represent our values better than you ever will.”

Few Republicans weighed in on the president’s comments. Congressional leaders, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, did not respond to requests for comment, nor did Sen. Tim. Scott of South Carolina, the only Republican black senator.

Mark Morgan, the acting commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, in a previously scheduled appearance on “Face the Nation” on CBS, said only: “You’re going to have to ask the president what he means by those specific tweets.”

Shortly after the tweets, and a later presidential post defending the harsh scenes at a border detention facility where hundreds of migrant men are being held in sweltering, foul-smelling conditions, Trump left the White House to go golfing at his Virginia club.

Trump appeared unbowed Sunday night when he returned to Twitter to say it was “so sad” to see Democrats sticking up for the women. “If the Democrat Party wants to continue to condone such disgraceful behavior,” he tweeted, “then we look even more forward to seeing you at the ballot box in 2020!”

It was far from the first time that Trump has been accused of holding racist views.

In his campaign kickoff in June 2015, Trump deemed many Mexican immigrants “rapists.” In 2017, he said there good people on “both sides” of the clash in Charlottesville, Virginia, between white supremacists and anti-racist demonstrators that left one counter-protester dead. Last year, during a private White House meeting on immigration, Trump wondered why the United States was admitting so many immigrants from “shithole countries” like African nations.

Repeatedly, Trump has painted arriving immigrants as an “infestation” and he has been slow in condemning acts of violence committed by white supremacists. And he launched his political career with false claims that President Barack Obama was not born in the United States.

Despite his history of racist remarks, Trump has paid little penalty in his own party.

Though a broad array of Republicans did speak out against his reaction to Charlottesville, they have largely held their tongues otherwise, whether it be on matter of race or any other Trump provocation. Fearful of his Twitter account and sweeping popularity among Republican voters, GOP lawmakers have largely tried to ignore the provocative statements.

Sen. Kamala Harris, a Democratic presidential hopeful from California, tweeted, “Let’s call the president’s racist attack exactly what it is: un-American.”

Ocasio-Cortez, who is of Puerto Rican descent, was born in the Bronx, New York, and raised in suburban Westchester County.

Pressley, the first black woman elected to the House from Massachusetts, was born in Cincinnati.

Omar, the first Somali native elected to Congress and one of its first Muslim women, was born in Somalia but spent much of her childhood in a Kenyan refugee camp as civil war tore apart her home country. She immigrated to the United States at age 12, teaching herself English by watching American TV and eventually settling with her family in Minneapolis.

Tlaib was born in Detroit.

source: usa.inquirer.net

Man demanding straw attacks fast food employee, gets arrested

One man from St. Petersburg, Florida in the United States was recently captured assaulting a McDonald’s employee. The reason behind his outburst? A straw.

The video was recorded by Kinie Biandudi, a witness of the incident, and was shared all over social media by her brother TJ on Dec. 31. In the video, the man, identified by reports as Daniel Taylor, can be seen putting his hands on the employee, Yasmine James, who was standing behind the counter.


“My mom and sis Kinie Biandudi recorded this today… All started because he wanted a straw,” he wrote on Facebook.

In the video, Taylor forcefully grabs James by her shirt’s collar and pulls her towards him on the counter. James retaliates and defends herself by hitting him back before being pried away by fellow employees. In the end, Taylor can be heard demanding for a refund.

Taylor apparently walked to the counter to get a straw, but started screaming at the employees when he could not find any, as per ABC Action News on Jan. 2.

“He was yelling and walking toward the counter and the young lady behind the counter told him that it’s the law now that we’re not allowed to have straws in the lobby,” Biandudi was quoted as saying.

As per the report, the law took effect just last Jan. 1 and prohibits restaurants from having straws available in the open in the hopes of completely banning them by 2020. Customers must instead ask for straws should they want one.


Meanwhile, Biandudi also took to her Facebook on Jan. 2 to share that James was not fired by McDonald’s.

“The young girl said she used to box,” she wrote. “After this fight he came back and went behind the counter and tried to fight the manager. The guy left before the cops arrived.”

It was reported that Taylor also tried to kick another employee on the stomach while on his way out of the restaurant. He was eventually arrested and charged with two counts of simple battery. Cody Cepeda/JB

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net

Starbucks to shut US stores for ‘racial-bias education’

Starbucks will close stores and corporate offices across the United States on May 29 to conduct “racial-bias education,” the company announced Tuesday, following outrage over the arrest of two black men in one of its cafes.

It was the latest bid by the behemoth coffee chain to recover from last Thursday’s incident in Philadelphia, which was captured on video and went viral, viewed millions of times.

The video posted on Twitter by a Starbucks client shows uniformed police questioning and then handcuffing the two men, who offer no resistance, as a white client repeatedly asks an officer, “What’d they do? What’d they do?”

Starbucks said more than 8,000 stores would be closed on the afternoon of May 29 and training provided to nearly 175,000 employees, and incorporated going forward.

CEO Kevin Johnson, who has also apologized, said the company was “committed to being a part of the solution” and that he had been in Philadelphia “listening to the community, learning what we did wrong and the steps we need to take to fix it.”

“Closing our stores for racial bias training is just one step in a journey that requires dedication from every level of our company and partnerships in our local communities,” he said.

The curriculum will be designed “to address implicit bias, promote conscious inclusion, prevent discrimination and ensure everyone inside a Starbucks store feels safe and welcome,” the company said in a statement.

Philadelphia police said they received a 911 call from a Starbucks worker who said the men were trespassing, after refusing to buy anything. Police said officers had “politely” asked the two to leave before finally arresting them.

They reportedly asked first to use the bathroom, but were told it was only for paying customers.

The two men’s lawyer Lauren Wimmer told a CBS affiliate in Philadelphia that they had been waiting for a third man to arrive for a business meeting.

Indignities, suspicion 

Starbucks declined to prosecute and the men were released.

Ex-US president Barack Obama’s former attorney general Eric Holder and Bryan Stevenson, a civil rights lawyer who has exonerated innocent prisoners on death row, will be among those experts consulted on the curriculum, Starbucks said.

“Being treated with respect and dignity at a place of public accommodation is an essential aspect of full citizenship,” tweeted NAACP Legal Defense Fund, which fights for racial justice and which is also being consulted.

“The reality is that most black Americans regularly face the indignities of being treated with suspicion,” it added.

“This is a crucial next step in fighting implicit bias,” tweeted Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, another expert consulted.

The woman who posted the video, Melissa DePino, said a Starbucks employee called police because the men had not ordered anything, while they waited for a friend.

“All the other white (people) are wondering why it’s never happened to us when we do the same thing,” she tweeted.

“The men were sitting there peacefully quietly and they were put in handcuffs and they were walked out of the store, humiliated, embarrassed and put in a patrol car,” DePino subsequently told MSNBC television.

The video drew widespread attention. Drummer Questlove of the group Roots tweeted a question: “Waiting in a Starbucks while black is a crime?”

Starbucks has also launched a review of training and practices to make reforms where necessary, and once completed, this will be made available to other companies, including their licensee partners, it said.

The company has more than 25,000 coffee shops around the world. NVG

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net